INDIANAPOLIS – In a perfect world, the Indiana Pacers continue to build around their three best young players, who also happen to be three of the nicest professional athletes in town: Victor Oladipo, Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis.

We’re not in a perfect world. We’re in Indianapolis, which is relevant to this discussion – which is everything, for this discussion – because your eyes and mine say the Pacers need another great perimeter player to pair with Oladipo. Reality says the Pacers won’t be able to find that player with the 18th pick of the 2019 NBA Draft. And history says that player, a great player, isn’t coming here through free agency.

That’s the framework of the discussion. So the question remains: How can the Pacers add another great perimeter player to Oladipo?

You can dislike it, and I’m telling you I do, but we all know the answer:

They have to trade Sabonis or Turner.

The NBA is all about the assets, and the Pacers have, literally, three premium assets. And only three: Oladipo, Turner, Sabonis. They have no draft picks that could get such a deal done, because a late-round pick is a gamble, not a sure thing.

The Pacers’ only other asset is cap space, which in theory they could use to absorb a bad contract, but until Pacers ownership shows the willingness to spend money on, literally, nothing … I’m going to downgrade that theoretical asset to a hypothesis. Which is an educated guess. Because your guess is as good as mine regarding Herb Simon’s willingness to spend money that way.

Which brings us back to Turner or Sabonis, and before we proceed, let me make this as clear as I can possibly make it: Those are two of my favorite guys in that locker room, or any locker room. And they are two great young players.

Turner (13.3 points per game, 7.2 rebounds, 2.7 blocks this season) deserves a spot on the NBA All-Defensive Team. Sabonis (14.1 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 2.9 assists in 24.8 minutes) deserves serious consideration – it has to be him, or the Clippers' Montrezl Harrell or Lou Williams – for NBA Sixth Man of the Year. Turner is 23, and Sabonis turns 23 on May 3. Whatever their ceiling is, they haven’t hit it yet.

But the Pacers don’t have the perimeter firepower to break through in an improving Eastern Conference, and there’s only one way to get it: Dangling Turner or Sabonis, or dangling them both, just to see the market for each. And the markets would be different, because Turner and Sabonis are different, though the Pacers can rarely play them together, another reason dealing one seems a foregone conclusion.

The 6-11 Turner is a premium rim protector who can switch briefly onto guards – Boston’s Kyrie Irving couldn’t stop raving about him during the Pacers-Celtics opening-round playoff series – and run the floor and knock down 3-pointers. He led the league with 199 blocked shots this season and shot a career-best 38.8 percent on 3-pointers, making a career-high 76. In NBA history, exactly two players have reached all three of those benchmarks in the same season: Turner this year, and Raef LaFrentz in 2002.

Sabonis is a different 6-11 big, less of a rim protector, more of a rebounder and a low-post scorer. Is that worth more? To some teams, Sabonis would be. To others, Turner would be more coveted.

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The Pacers don’t have the perimeter firepower to break through in an improving Eastern Conference, Gregg Doyel writes, and there’s only one way to get it: Dangling Turner or Sabonis, or dangling them both, just to see the market for each.(Photo: IndyStar photo illustration)

Their contracts also matter, what with making the dollars work in a trade, and with Turner embarking on a four-year deal worth as much as $80 million, and with Sabonis a much cheaper option for next season ($3.5 million) but without that cost containment going forward.

In a perfect world, the Pacers keep them both. But we live here, not there, and this offseason – this offseason of massive roster upheaval – is the time to make their move. A year ago Pacers president Kevin Pritchard opted for continuity, betting on his team’s chemistry in the locker room and camaraderie on the court. It was the right decision, undermined only by Oladipo’s season-ending ruptured quad tendon injury, but Pritchard doesn’t have that option this season.

With the exception of Joseph, 27, every player on that list is or will be in their 30s before next season starts. Re-signing one (Bogey) or two (and Young?) makes sense. Bringing back a slew of 30-somethings is no way to build. But it’s a sure way to bog down.

Make no mistake: The 2019-20 Pacers will bear little resemblance to the team we last saw Sunday in Game 4 against the Celtics, in part because Oladipo will be back, but also because so many others won’t be.

Pritchard is awfully good at his job, turning the Paul George fiasco two summers ago into the Oladipo-and-Sabonis bounty, but he's not a magician. That was an exchange of premium assets, and to rebuild around Oladipo, he’ll have to make another exchange.

Dealing Turner or Sabonis would be a high cost. But greatness doesn’t come cheap.